editorNPR Digital Services RSS Generator 0.94Tom Huizenga is a music producer, reporter and blogger for NPR Music.He is a regular contributor of stories about classical music to NPR's news programs and co-hosts NPR's classical music blog Deceptive Cadence.Joining NPR in 1999, Huizenga spent seven years as a producer, writer and editor for NPR's Peabody Award-winning daily classical music show Performance Today and for programs SymphonyCast and World of Opera.He's produced live concerts, including a radio broadcast of Gershwin's Porgy & Bess from Washington National Opera at the Kennedy Center and NPR's first classical music webcast from the Manhattan club (Le) Poisson Rouge, featuring the acclaimed Emerson String Quartet. He's also asked musicians to play in unlikely venues, such as cellist Alisa Weilerstein playing Bach at the Baltimore Aquarium. He's written and produced radio specials, like A Choral Christmas With Stile Antico, broadcast on stations around the country.Huizenga's radio career began at the University of MichiganNPR Digital Services RSS Generator 0.94Tom HuizengaSun, 04 Dec 2016 22:09:00 +0000Tom Huizengahttp://ksut.org
Tom Huizengahttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzHeWjW0ug0 A rambunctious 45-minute orchestral piece called Play, by American composer Andrew Norman, has been named the winner of the 2017 Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition. The prize, which includes $100,000, was announced this evening by the University of Louisville, which sponsors the award. Former winners include Pierre Boulez, John Adams, Kaija Saariaho and Thomas Adès.Norman, 37, wrote Play for the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, an ensemble led by Gil Rose, which premiered the work in 2013 and released a critically acclaimed recording last year. The work has had subsequent performances by three other orchestras, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic in October. In 2012, the young composer's string trio The Companion Guide to Rome was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.Grawemeyer Award Director Marc Satterwhite, who is also a composer, praised Play in a media statement for its brilliant orchestration, calling it "wildly inventive andAndrew Norman Wins The Grawemeyer Award For Musichttp://ksut.org/post/andrew-norman-wins-grawemeyer-award-music
71168 as http://ksut.orgTue, 29 Nov 2016 03:01:00 +0000Andrew Norman Wins The Grawemeyer Award For MusicTom HuizengaClassical music observers say we're living in a golden age of string quartets. It's hard to disagree when you hear the vibrant young players in New York's Attacca Quartet.They revere the old school, having recently completed a performance cycle of all 68 string quartets by Joseph Haydn, the man who invented the genre. They also hunger for the new, exploring the music of three living composers each year in a project called Recently Added.One contemporary composer the group continues to champion is John Adams. The head-banging pulsations of "Toot Nipple" (titled after a character in an Annie Proulx story) contrast with the slippery and funky episodes in "Alligator Escalator." Adams has said he imagined such a creature waddling up and down the floors of Macy's department store. The two movements belong to John's Book of Alleged Dances from 1994.Next to Adams, Haydn sounds positively genteel, but you needn't look far to find the composer's own feisty side. Sunny skies suddenly turnAttacca Quartet: Tiny Desk Concerthttp://ksut.org/post/attacca-quartet-tiny-desk-concert
70942 as http://ksut.orgFri, 18 Nov 2016 14:14:00 +0000Attacca Quartet: Tiny Desk ConcertTom Huizengahttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaYcM_Gi398 Gianandrea Noseda wants to break down a few long-standing barriers to classical music. The next music director of Washington, D.C.'s National Symphony Orchestra thinks jeans and T-shirts at his concerts are fine. Confused about when to applaud? Noseda says that if the music moves you, go for it. "Music is a part of life," he says. "It's not in a mausoleum. Music is written to be shared."The 52-year-old Italian conductor was named the NSO's seventh music director last January. The news was joyously received in the classical music community, especially here in Washington, where Anne Midgette, in the Washington Post, characterized his appointment as a "coup" for the orchestra. "Noseda is a star at the world's leading orchestra and opera houses." He officially takes over the orchestra next fall.Noseda was in Washington earlier this month to lead his first concerts with the NSO as music director designate. He dropped by NPR to talk about his hopesMr. Noseda Goes To Washington: The Capital's Orchestra Gets A New Leaderhttp://ksut.org/post/mr-noseda-goes-washington-capitals-orchestra-gets-new-leader
70773 as http://ksut.orgFri, 11 Nov 2016 15:07:00 +0000Mr. Noseda Goes To Washington: The Capital's Orchestra Gets A New LeaderTom HuizengaCalling themselves "an accidental brass quartet," the members of The Westerlies, like the prevailing winds, blew east to New York from their hometown of Seattle, where they were childhood friends.Young musicians today routinely resist being pigeonholed into a single genre. Such is the case with this unconventional band, which, through its compositions and tight ensemble playing, reveals a built-in sympathy for improvised jazz, rigorous classical structures and sunshiny pop. Trumpeters Riley Mulherkar and Zubin Hensler and trombonists Andy Clausen and Willem de Koch can blow hard — after all, this is a brass band — but the surprise comes in their soft tones and subtle phrasing.Clausen provides two tunes, beginning with "New Berlin, New York," which sports a snappy theme, standing out like a bright tie on a smart suit. A scurrying pattern of interlocking notes furnishes the underlying fabric. His closing number, "Rue Des Rosiers," conjures up the circus-like vibe of a Parisian streetThe Westerlies: Tiny Desk Concerthttp://ksut.org/post/westerlies-tiny-desk-concert
70562 as http://ksut.orgWed, 02 Nov 2016 13:00:00 +0000The Westerlies: Tiny Desk ConcertTom HuizengaWhat are you doing for the next 10 days? That's how long it would take, without sleep, to listen to the new Mozart edition. The mammoth set, which some are touting as the biggest box set ever, claims to hold every note of Mozart's music and then some.Released to commemorate the 225th anniversary of the Austrian composer's death, the box is dubbed Mozart 225: The New Complete Edition. Inside the 22-pound box are 240 hours of music (on 200 CDs, 30 of which feature alternate performances), two hardback books (a biography plus a piece-by-piece commentary), frameable Mozart prints and an updated Köchel catalogue, the intricately numbered directory of Mozart's music.Cliff Eisen, author of the set's biography, is one of the key players behind the enormous box, which sells for about $400. A Mozart scholar and professor of music at King's College in London, Eisen spoke with NPR Music about the new edition and the life of the beloved but sometimes misunderstood composer.Beyond Mozart's beautiful240 Hours, 22 Pounds: A Mammoth Mozart Box Set Aims At More Than 'Complete' http://ksut.org/post/240-hours-22-pounds-mammoth-mozart-box-set-aims-more-complete
70434 as http://ksut.orgThu, 27 Oct 2016 13:14:00 +0000240 Hours, 22 Pounds: A Mammoth Mozart Box Set Aims At More Than 'Complete' Tom HuizengaWhat defines America? There's been a lot of talk about that this election season. Pianist Lara Downes has a musical answer in her upcoming album America Again. To be released Oct. 28, it's a smartly programmed, wide-ranging anthology of solo piano works by American composers past and present; male and female; straight and gay; rich and poor; white, black and Latino.The album's title may evoke a certain presidential candidate's rallying cry, but it's taken from "Let America Be America Again," a poem by Langston Hughes. (That Hughes title actually was a campaign slogan for John Kerry in 2004.) Hughes' poem, written in 1935, speaks of those for whom the American Dream is just that — only a dream. Downes' album reflects Hughes' theme of resignation in "Deep River," a smoldering reimagining of the traditional spiritual by Samuel Coleridge Taylor, and in her nod to Nina Simone's introspective take on Gershwin's "I Loves You Porgy." Yet, like Hughes, Downes also embraces that distinctivelyFirst Listen: Lara Downes, 'America Again'http://ksut.org/post/first-listen-lara-downes-america-again
70267 as http://ksut.orgThu, 20 Oct 2016 11:00:00 +0000First Listen: Lara Downes, 'America Again'Tom HuizengaNeed a moment to get away from it all? Here's your escape — a serene and bewitching video that calms the wearied mind.Set to the otherworldly music of Carolina Eyck at the Innisfree Garden in Millbrook, N.Y., director Sonia Malfa's six-minute fantasy unfolds like a dream, propelled by Genard Ptah Blair's expressive dancing. Eyck plays the theremin, the early electronic instrument with a slithery sound, and improvises over parts she composed for string quartet, played by members of the American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME).After the opening shot — skimming over a misty lake, escorted by an egret — we meet Blair, who plays a man both bemused and inspired by his natural surroundings. Practicing a style of dance native to Brooklyn known as flexing, Blair bends his body like taffy, turning in lyrical circles, mesmerized by lights at the tips of his fingers which flit like fireflies in the dusky forest."Leyohmi" means luminescence. Although Eyck and her record producer made up the wordFirst Watch: Carolina Eyck, 'Leyohmi' http://ksut.org/post/first-watch-carolina-eyck-leyohmi
70060 as http://ksut.orgTue, 11 Oct 2016 15:30:00 +0000First Watch: Carolina Eyck, 'Leyohmi' Tom HuizengaJoshua Bell & Jeremy Denk: Tiny Desk Concerthttp://ksut.org/post/joshua-bell-jeremy-denk-tiny-desk-concert
69820 as http://ksut.orgFri, 30 Sep 2016 13:00:00 +0000Joshua Bell Tom HuizengaViolence against women is no modern tragedy. Composer John Adams found that out when he saw an exhibition about the tales of the Arabian Nights — ancient stories in which Scheherazade tells her murderous husband a new tantalizing tale each night for 1001 nights, thus sparing her life a day at a time. The composer, writing in Scheherazade.2's booklet notes, says he was surprised by how many of the stories included women suffering brutality.That got Adams thinking about "the many images of women oppressed or abused or violated that we see today in the news on a daily basis." Now, Adams has updated Scheherazade's disturbing story in a 50-minute piece for violin and orchestra.Borrowing a formula from Hector Berlioz (with a nod to Scherherazade, Rimsky-Korsakov's popular symphonic suite), Adams created a "dramatic symphony," casting the violin as a modern-day Scheherazade — the smart woman who remains fearless in the face of cruelty. Over the course of four movements, no precise narrativeFirst Listen: John Adams, 'Scheherazade.2'http://ksut.org/post/first-listen-john-adams-scheherazade2
69619 as http://ksut.orgThu, 22 Sep 2016 11:00:00 +0000First Listen: John Adams, 'Scheherazade.2'Tom HuizengaIf there's one piece by Chopin that can truly be called "trippy," it's the Mazurka in A minor, Op. 17, No. 4 – especially in this spellbinding performance by pianist Pavel Kolesnikov. The young Russian has just released a new album of Chopin's Mazurkas, arranged not chronologically but by mood and texture, flowing like a mixtape.The A minor Mazurka could be called the "Ambient" Mazurka. Everything about it is dreamy; it floats along as if Chopin made up the music on the spot in a great opium cloud. You could argue it's a kind of strange precursor to Brian Eno's Music for Airports or Gil Evans' spacious jazz arrangements. The piece begins with the delicately perfumed dissonance of the opening four bars. Played sotto voce, they stumble in a daze, as if stoned and unsure where to turn next. From this bewilderment, the main melody emerges. Its ravishing beauty mutates in unexpected ways with diaphanous ornamentations.The key to making it all so intoxicating is the attention Kolesnikov paysSongs We Love: Pavel Kolesnikov, Chopin: 'Mazurka In A Minor, Op. 17, No. 4'http://ksut.org/post/songs-we-love-pavel-kolesnikov-chopin-mazurka-minor-op-17-no-4
69598 as http://ksut.orgWed, 21 Sep 2016 13:00:00 +0000Songs We Love: Pavel Kolesnikov, Chopin: 'Mazurka In A Minor, Op. 17, No. 4'Tom HuizengaTim Page is no longer afraid of death. That's the one positive takeaway for him after surviving a traumatic brain injury.Last year, the University of Southern California music and journalism professor — who was also a child prodigy filmmaker, Pulitzer-winning critic, person with Asperger's and father of three — collapsed at a train station. He woke up in an ambulance speeding to the hospital. He's still recovering, still fumbling a bit with the jigsaw pieces of a life a now a little more puzzling, a little more amazing.Page, 61, has a new book out, Thomson: The State of Music Life After A Brain Injury: 'I'm Not Terrified Of Death Anymore'http://ksut.org/post/life-after-brain-injury-im-not-terrified-death-anymore
69453 as http://ksut.orgThu, 15 Sep 2016 16:08:00 +0000Life After A Brain Injury: 'I'm Not Terrified Of Death Anymore'Tom HuizengaTalk to nearly any classical music critic about heroes of the trade and one name usually comes up: Virgil Thomson. Anthony Tommasini of the New York Times advises: "Every practicing and aspiring critic today should read Thomson's exhilarating writings."Tim Page, the Pulitzer Prize-winning former critic of Newsday and the Washington Post is another Thomson enthusiast. He has edited reissues of the critic's important books and articles. The second volume for Library of America, Thomson: The State of Music Critical Condition: Revisiting Composer Virgil Thomson's Masterful Prosehttp://ksut.org/post/critical-condition-revisiting-composer-virgil-thomsons-masterful-prose
69452 as http://ksut.orgThu, 15 Sep 2016 15:46:00 +0000Critical Condition: Revisiting Composer Virgil Thomson's Masterful ProseTom HuizengaAs a 16-year-old, Pretty Yende was sitting with her parents in their rural South African home watching TV when a British Airways ad came on. As the sweet music swelled and voices intertwined, Yende was mesmerized. The only problem: She had no idea what to call the beautiful music she'd just heard."So I went to my high-school teacher the following day and I asked him what it was, and he told me it's called opera," Yende explained to NPR last year. The commercial had played the duet from Delibes' Lakmé. "If you have the talent, you can do it," her teacher told her.Yende learned quickly. Now, her sparkling debut album, A Journey, unfolds like a musical diary chronicling the 31-year-old soprano's fairytale rise to fame. After her studies at the South African College of Music in Cape Town, the awards and debuts began piling up, many of which are reflected in the arias she sings in this recital.The album opens with "Una voce poco fa" from Rossini's Barber of Seville, an opera that served asFirst Listen: Pretty Yende, 'A Journey'http://ksut.org/post/first-listen-pretty-yende-journey
69239 as http://ksut.orgThu, 08 Sep 2016 11:00:00 +0000First Listen: Pretty Yende, 'A Journey'Tom HuizengaWhen you stop to think about it, there really is no one like Barbra Streisand. There's Barbra the young Broadway legend, the movie star, the glass-ceiling-smashing movie director, the recording artist and now the venerated elder stateswoman of the showstopper. But amid all the richly deserved Oscars, Tonys, Emmys and Globes, there's that voice. Forget all her other talents, it's the voice alone that any entertainer would die to possess.Last night, Streisand gave a two-hour plus concert at Washington, D.C.'s Verizon Center. The legend's return may have worried some, yet at age 74, it's clear that Streisand has guarded her vocal resources very carefully. Although you can tell she's no longer 40, the voice is almost completely intact. It swelled with the power of a tsunami in favorites like "Don't Rain On My Parade" and "Being Alive." Yet, she also pared the sound down to a golden thread of tone, perfectly supported by the breath, in songs like "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" and the bonaThe Enduring Fabulousness Of Barbra Streisandhttp://ksut.org/post/enduring-fabulousness-barbra-streisand
68735 as http://ksut.orgFri, 19 Aug 2016 18:06:00 +0000The Enduring Fabulousness Of Barbra StreisandTom HuizengaMany stylistic winds blow through the repertoire of The Westerlies. The unconventional brass quartet from New York (Riley Mulherkar and Zubin Hensler, trumpets; Andy Clausen and Willem de Koch, trombones) embraces jazz, classical, new music and dance — and in this case, puts a new spin on an old British ballad."Pretty Saro," as the song is best known, is among those many 17th-century English and Scottish folk ballads ("Barbara Allen," "Matty Groves") that eventually found new life on this side of the Atlantic, revived by the likes of Pete Seeger and Judy Collins. Bob Dylan also recorded the song, though he never committed it to an album until it finally appeared on The Bootleg Series, Vol. 10.With a gently swaying rhythm and a bittersweet melody, the original song depicts a man haunted by his memory of pretty Saro, who's rejected him for lack of wealth. The opening lines set a melancholy tone: "Down in some lone valley, in a sad lonesome place / Where the wild birds do whistle, theirSongs We Love: The Westerlies, 'Saro'http://ksut.org/post/songs-we-love-westerlies-saro
68619 as http://ksut.orgMon, 15 Aug 2016 13:58:00 +0000Songs We Love: The Westerlies, 'Saro'Tom Huizenga"They killed my mother in the doorway." How's that for an opening line?We're talking opera — specifically, the aria "La mamma morta" from Umberto Giordano's 1896 French Revolution thriller Andrea Chénier. The soprano is Anna Netrebko.Opera geeks are always charged with excitement, and a little anxiety, when a favorite singer releases a new album. (Has her voice changed? How will it fit the repertoire?) Netrebko, arguably today's most touted soprano, is about to issue a new album, Verismo — and we've got a sneak peek.As her plush voice has added darker, richer colors over the past few years, Netrebko, now 44, has been exploring lower registers and weightier roles both on record and onstage. The album's title, Verismo, refers to the turn-of-the-20th century style of opera that focuses on surging emotions and physical violence in the lives of common people."La mamma morta" finds the heroine, Maddalena, in crisis. She's a member of the aristocracy trying to save her lover, the poet ChénierAnna Netrebko's Mournful 'Mamma Morta'http://ksut.org/post/songs-we-love-anna-netrebko-la-mamma-morta
68513 as http://ksut.orgThu, 11 Aug 2016 04:05:00 +0000Anna Netrebko's Mournful 'Mamma Morta'Tom Huizengahttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMu9PKWthLE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpVV9jShEzU A new film starring Meryl Streep, which opens in the U.S. Friday, tells the improbable story of Florence Foster Jenkins, a real-life New York socialite who pronounced herself a coloratura soprano despite a distinct lack of talent. Who could've guessed that Jenkins, who favored elaborate costumes and strangled phrases with abandon, would resurface with such gusto decades after her death in 1944. She's been the subject of a Broadway play starring Judy Kaye, a new biography, a documentary and now two movies released in the U.S. within the span of six months.The film, Florence Foster Jenkins, directed by Stephen Frears (My Beautiful Laundrette, Dangerous Liasons, The Queen), is an affectionate portrait of the elderly heiress, her aspirations and her illusions — both as singer and lover — as she ramps up to a Carnegie Hall debut.Thanks to Frears, and a bravura performance by Streep, Jenkins' stock isKilling Me Sharply With Her Song: The Improbable Story Of Florence Foster Jenkinshttp://ksut.org/post/killing-me-sharply-her-song-improbable-story-florence-foster-jenkins
68504 as http://ksut.orgWed, 10 Aug 2016 19:53:00 +0000Killing Me Sharply With Her Song: The Improbable Story Of Florence Foster JenkinsTom HuizengaThe Jayhawks: Tiny Desk Concerthttp://ksut.org/post/jayhawks-tiny-desk-concert
68441 as http://ksut.orgMon, 08 Aug 2016 18:00:00 +0000The Jayhawks: Tiny Desk ConcertTom Huizenga http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJkxFhFRFDA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzkSncB912A http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6bxA6eWWAw Unless you've been hiding under a rock, you know that a few little sporting events are about to begin in Rio de Janeiro. Brazil's "Marvelous City" (Cidade Maravilhosa), as the locals call it, is rightly celebrated for beautiful beaches (and the beautiful people on those beaches), raucous Carnival and the spectacular view atop Corcovado Mountain. Over the next few weeks, as the Summer Olympics unfold, the focus will be on all things Brazilian. Here are an introduction to and playlist of what may be Brazil's most important commodity — its music. Copyright 2016 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.Let The Games Begin: A Playlist For Riohttp://ksut.org/post/let-games-begin-playlist-rio
68374 as http://ksut.orgFri, 05 Aug 2016 15:25:00 +0000Let The Games Begin: A Playlist For RioTom HuizengaThe music of Johann Sebastian Bach is essential, like air and water, for many classical musicians. Pianist András Schiff starts every day with Bach — sometimes before breakfast. "It's like taking care of your inner hygiene. There's something very pure about it," he says. Cellist Matt Haimovitz notes that he's been playing and thinking about the Bach Cello Suites for more than 30 years. He even plays them in bars.Violinist Rachel Barton Pine began playing Bach in church at age 4. Ever since, she's been mastering and re-mastering Bach's set of six Sonatas and Partitas--more than two hours of solo violin music that looms like a proverbial Mount Everest for any serious fiddler. The trick is getting the details down. Bach left us with the notes but not much else. Pine recently analyzed every measure of these works, and prepared a new edition of the music with her own dynamic markings, phrasing indications, bowings and fingerings.For this performance, Pine chose three contrasting movementsRachel Barton Pine: Tiny Desk Concerthttp://ksut.org/post/rachel-barton-pine-tiny-desk-concert
68373 as http://ksut.orgFri, 05 Aug 2016 13:00:00 +0000Rachel Barton Pine: Tiny Desk Concert